IceDogs 5, 67's 2

It could be curtains for the J. Benson Cartage Centre after the 67’s dropped a heartbreaking 5-2 decision Wednesday night to the Niagara IceDogs, who now head home with a 3-1 stranglehold in the OHL Eastern Conference final with Game 5 Friday.

If the 67’s manage to upset the favoured IceDogs in the Garden City, the venerable Bank St. arena — home to the 67’s for the last 45 seasons — will live to see another day before the team relocates to Scotiabank Place for the next two years.

If not, Ottawa native David Pacan will go down in the history books as the guy who drove the final dagger, with a pair of third-period goals to give his IceDogs their first lead of the game at 7:41 of the final period, and some much-needed insurance at 13:21.

"I didn’t think of it that way," said a grinning Pacan after the game, "but it’s a pretty awesome feeling. I grew up watching the 67’s and I came to a lot of games, and I just love playing in this building — the atmosphere, the history of this rink is just amazing."

Freddie and Dougie Hamilton assisted on both of Pacan’s goals, and Pacan returned the favour by setting up Freddie for an empty-netter with 5.9 seconds left as the IceDogs erased a 2-1 Ottawa lead in the third period.

"You need your big guys in big opportunities, and this is an opportunity to take (the series) back home," said Niagara coach Marty Williamson.

"Hats off to (Niagara) for finishing some plays," said 67’s coach Chris Byrne. "A couple of tough ones with a bounce here or there, it’s tough for our guys because I thought the effort was really good."

Despite the losing effort, the 67’s continued to dominate the special teams battle against an IceDogs team that ranked No. 1 in both penalty kill and power play through the regular season.

Ottawa’s penalty killers frustrated the vaunted Niagara power play at every turn, creating and capitalizing on short-handed chances of their own.

With Dalton Smith’s third short-handed goal in as many games — after scoring just once through the opening two rounds — he has now single-handedly outscored Niagara’s power play.

Niagara has two power-play goals on 18 chances in the series, while Ottawa is 3-for-13 with three short-handed markers.

Tyler Graovac did all the legwork, outworking Dougie Hamilton and centring the puck to Smith, who buried it past Mark Visentin at 10:08.

Petr Mrazek, who was still listed as a game-time decision hours before the puck dropped with a virus that kept him out of Monday’s 5-2 defeat, was back to his old self, making 40 stops in the loss.

Mrazek was pitching a shutout until the final minutes of the second period, when Niagara captain Andrew Agozzino — a 67’s killer throughout his five-year OHL career — struck with 2:18 remaining with the 67’s clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Mrazek made the penalty killers look even better, especially in the opening eight minutes of the second, when the 67’s were nailed with three straight minor penalties.

The IceDogs outshot Ottawa 17-11 in the second and 44-38 in the game, finally solving Mrazek on Agozzino’s first of two on the night to take a 1-1 tie into the intermission.

"We didn’t start out the way we wanted to, but there’s a lot of character in that room. We had good talks between periods and we knew that we could come together and get the win," said Pacan.

Tyler Toffoli’s 11th goal of the playoffs, but first of the series, put Ottawa back on top 4:03 into the third. But it took only 2:46 for Agozzino to strike again, reeling in an Alex Friesen feed and tucking the puck past an outstretched Mrazek.

Less than a minute later, Pacan gave the IceDogs their first lead of the game, shovelling the puck through Mrazek from close range.

Pacan scored again six minutes later, and Freddie Hamilton capped the scoring with his empty-net goal.

"This is not an easy place to come in to and you win two games like that and have a chance to go back and win it on Friday, it’s what we wanted, but I’m pretty impressed with the guys getting it done," said Williamson.

If there’s one thing the 67’s can cling to, it’s that overcoming a 3-1 series deficit is still fresh in their minds. They turned the trick eight days ago on the Barrie Colts.

"We just have to play a full 60-minute game," said Toffoli. "There were times when we let off and started taking penalties when we didn’t need to, and it’s hard killing penalties all game. We’ve been doing a good job, but it’s definitely tiring us out, and you could tell in the third period we let up a bit and they finished their chances.

"We’ve got to take it one period at a time, that’s what we did against Barrie. Hopefully we can pull through."

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